Episode 527

At first, Lee Han wondered if Professor Paselete was simply mistaken due to magic power, like the common mistake often made by the skull principal’s minions.

But the meaning behind Professor Paselete’s words felt somewhat different.

It seemed like she wasn’t mistaking Lee Han for someone due to magic, but was seeing some other truth.

Priest Tijilling asked in a voice laced with curiosity.

“Have you perhaps lost your way?”

Of course, what Priest Tijilling meant by ‘lost your way’ was not literal in the real world.

True to the nature of prediction magic, which was among the most difficult and eccentric types of magic, prediction mages often suffered diverse side effects.

One was getting so deep into prediction that they lost track of the concepts of past, present, and future, and became lost within fate itself.

Prediction magic users now described this as ‘losing their way.’

“For a truly great prediction mage like you, Professor, it’s entirely possible…”

It was called a side effect, but not just anyone could experience this condition of being lost. In some ways, it was close to a supreme state.

Ordinary prediction mages just coughed up blood or lost their lives, but could not drift between past, present, and future like this.

Even foreseeing tomorrow’s events is a difficult feat as it is.

So it wasn’t surprising that Priest Tijilling looked at Professor Paselete with awe and respect.

A level one might not reach even after training in prediction magic for their whole life.

Someday, Priest Tijilling also wished to reach such a truth…

“No. She’s just gone mad.”

Lee Han flatly denied it.

“……”

Ever gentle and mild Priest Tijilling gave a rare dissatisfied look and asked,

“Is there a reason you think so?”

“All professors are mad anyway.”

“……”

Priest Tijilling eyed Lee Han with an even more dissatisfied expression.

If Gainando or Angrago looked at him like that, he would have smacked them with his staff, but when someone like Priest Tijilling did it, Lee Han felt pressured to give more reasons.

“Actually, Priest Tijilling. I know my own future.”

“R-really?”

Priest Tijilling raised his voice in surprise. It seemed to genuinely startle him, his eyes even quivering.

There were few people who knew their own future. In fact, there were none.

How could a mortal being know their future in advance?

But Priest Tijilling knew the boy in front of him was of the Wardanaz family.

There were many arcane secrets in the empire unknown even to the clergy.

If it was the Wardanaz family, they could very well have such knowledge…

‘Did he receive a prophecy? But how? By what method?’

“Yeah.”

Lee Han lowered his voice so only Priest Tijilling could hear.

The serious attitude drew Priest Tijilling’s attention despite himself.

What kind of future could it be?

“After graduation, I’ll use my connections and exceptional business sense to multiply my assets dozens of times, become famous as a new imperial entrepreneur, and spend my life at leisure.”

“……”

Priest Tijilling lost his composure and glared at Lee Han.

He still had much to learn about prediction magic, but at least he could instinctively tell that the future the boy before him just claimed was not going to happen.

• * *

Luckily, Professor Paselete soon woke up.

She looked at the two students with a pained expression, as if she’d drunk a dozen bottles of cheap liquor the previous day.

“…Surely I didn’t attack you two…?”

“No, Professor.”

“You only did some prediction.”

“You didn’t even do prediction. You just said some strange things.”

“……”

Priest Tijilling started to say something, but gave up when he saw Lee Han’s desperate denial.

Professor Paselete let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s good. That’s good. If I had attacked you… Lately, I’ve been preparing for grand magic, so there have been risky times.”

“Grand magic?”

Lee Han hid his wariness as he asked.

Whether it was a professor or an upperclassman, it was never good for a first-year if anyone inside Einrogard was preparing grand magic.

If even a small mistake happened, everyone would have to pay the price.

“Yes. I have to determine the location of next year’s incoming students. The principal is directing it, but I can’t help but bear some of the weight.”

“…!”

Lee Han realized what she meant and was shocked.

‘Is that sort of thing really possible with prediction magic??’

Come to think of it, there was no way magic wouldn’t be used to gather incoming students from across the empire.

And finding the locations of these freshmen would, of course, be under the purview of prediction magic.

And yet, the only reason Lee Han never thought of it before was because the scale of the magic was incomprehensibly huge.

‘No matter how much power Einrogard has built up, foreseeing the exact locations of eligible people across the whole empire…’

Priest Tijilling also seemed shocked, eyes wide and speechless.

The principal’s magic was that shocking.

“The rebound must be terrible…”

Priest Tijilling mumbled, to which Professor Paselete gave a small laugh and looked fondly at the half-devil priest.

“Most of the backlash is borne by the principal and the principal’s prisoners, so don’t worry about it.”

‘There was definitely something strange in there.’

“Anyway, did I only say strange things? I felt like I’d gone pretty deep this time…”

Professor Paselete trailed off with a slightly puzzled note.

Usually, when she got this deeply lost in prediction, she would at least blurt out a couple of useful things amid the nonsense.

But apparently not this time.

“There wasn’t anything.”

“……”

The silence from Tijilling ate at her a bit, but Professor Paselete decided not to press further.

“Pity. Sometimes you get something worthwhile.”

Looking disappointed, the professor glanced about and then swung her staff to sweep away the opaque grey mist surrounding the woods.

“There it is again.”

“Isn’t it just fog?”

“It’s more like residue. When performing magic that huge, things like that keep forming. Careful not to touch it, you’ll see hallucinations.”

“……”

Lee Han was a bit moved the professor was only telling them this now.

“Hmm…”

Not knowing what her student was thinking, Professor Paselete looked at the two as she fell into thought.

As the silence dragged on, Lee Han at the front started feeling uneasy.

It was rare for it to lead anywhere good when a professor thought about students for a long time.

“Um, Professor? In order for us to do our duty, we need to harvest rock plantain, which takes quite a while so…”

“You said you were taking care of it with magic a second ago?”

“I did, but I thought it would be too much of a waste of magic.”

“??”

But regardless of what Lee Han was saying, Professor Paselete finished mulling it over alone and spoke up again.

“Alright. Meeting like this must be fate, let’s take this opportunity for me to show you both something. It’ll be interesting, since you’re both studying prediction magic.”

“……”

Professor Paselete usually didn’t care too much about her disciples, believing those who wanted to learn would do so themselves.

But the two in front of her were particularly special even among her disciples.

Tijilling had the sort of talent that made even prediction mages envious, and Wardanaz was just…

‘He’ll like it if I show him this.’

Professor Paselete’s other personalities strongly agreed as well.

-Excellent idea! Like I said last time, you must never allow a genius to get bored!

-I think so too…

Of course, Lee Han fell into deep despair.

‘I knew it would be bad luck the moment I ran into a professor after dark.’

He should have turned and run instantly, but staring out of curiosity was a huge mistake.

To make such a blunder—he still had a long way to go as an Einrogard student.

“Do you know what the professor is going to show us?”

As Lee Han despaired so completely, Priest Tijilling tilted his head and asked.

Priest Tijilling couldn’t guess at all.

“No. I don’t know either.”

“……”

Then why despair…?

• * *

Grand magic that could affect the entire empire was not something that even the skull principal could use at will.

Magic as old as the skull principal.

A site with some of the most potent magic veins in the empire.

Add to that brilliant mages supporting the skull principal, all sorts of minions, and notorious criminals hired to shed blood and die as substitutes…

With all this going on, strange phenomena were happening all over Einrogard that you wouldn’t ordinarily see.

Professor Paselete waved her staff once more.

The mists dispersed again, revealing a clear trail through the woods.

“My, today’s especially bad. It’d be best to just follow me.”

“…?”

Lee Han and Priest Tijilling didn’t know what she meant at first, but soon understood.

The trail that had just opened quickly vanished, swallowed by dense woods.

Professor Paselete strode confidently through the uncharted woods as if there were markers showing her the way.

She was breaking through the natural maze with the power of prediction magic.

Crack!

A stone on the bracelet Professor Paselete was wearing shattered.

Lee Han instantly drew his staff.

“What’s the enemy?”

“No, no. Not an enemy, but bad luck. It protected me from misfortune. It’s a ward—You’ll both learn to make one of these.”

Prediction mages not only learned how to foresee the future but also how to control it.

‘Control’ might sound grandiose. In truth, it was more like struggling to nudge the course of a massive stream ever so slightly.

But even that little bit was crucial to prediction mages. Foreseeing the future was that dangerous.

One such measure was this kind of protective charm.

“When it senses misfortune, it breaks like this. It may not look useful…”

“I really want one!”

This disciple, who had shown no greed before, now cried out with fervor, startling Professor Paselete a bit.

“W-well. You’ll be learning it soon. Let’s see… Good, the conditions are just right.”

Professor Paselete glanced around and finally found what she was looking for.

A spring.

But rather than its usual clear water, it was filled with cloudy grey, swirling mist like they’d seen earlier.

“Do you know what this is?”

“A spring filled with poison?”

Thinking Lee Han was joking, Professor Paselete chuckled.

‘It wasn’t a joke.’

“No. It’s residue left from the recent grand magic. Normally it only causes hallucinations, but when concentrated like this, if a mage can control it…”

Professor Paselete swung her staff and chanted a spell.

The air around them grew ever quieter, all noise vanishing. Not even the chirps and buzz of the forest could be heard.

“It becomes a tool to sharply hone one’s powers of foresight.”

The professor tossed Lee Han a gourd.

“Take a drink. It’ll be an interesting experience.”

As Lee Han carefully approached the spring with the gourd, Priest Tijilling asked a question.

“So this spring… enhances prediction?”

“That’s right. Isn’t it interesting?”

“Amazing. How effective is it?”

“Three seconds at shortest, ten at longest?”

That alone was an incredible feat.

Prediction was a power even magic couldn’t easily touch.

Gulp—

As Lee Han drank from the spring, Professor Paselete asked in a voice full of anticipation.

“Well? For a brief moment, you feel a sense of omniscience, like you can answer anything, right?”

“…?”

Lee Han hesitated.

Even after the amount of time the professor mentioned had passed, the sensation she described had not gone away.